Timeline of Church History

The History of the Church is a vital part of the Orthodox Christian faith. Orthodox Christians are defined significantly by their continuity with all those who have gone before, those who first received and preached the truth of Jesus Christ to the world, those who helped to formulate the expression and worship of our faith, and those who continue to move forward in the unchanging yet ever-dynamic Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

New Testament era

• ca. 6-7BC 14,000 Holy Innocents are slain in Bethlehem
• ca. 6-7BC Christ is born in Bethlehem (according to historians, Christ was not born in the Year 0. it is stated in the New Testament that Christ was born during the period that Herod was slaying the Holy Innocents. King Herod died -6BC.
• ca. 25-26 The Holy Righteous Joseph the Betrothed reposes in peace (according to St Epiphanios of Cyprus, he reposed prior to Christ entering into his ministery).
• ca. 27 Christ's baptism in the Jordan
• ca. 28 St. John the Baptist is beheaded.
• ca. 30 Christ's death, resurrection and ascension in heaven. Total number of known Christians = 120.
• ca. 30 First martyr for Christ, St. Stephen, stoned to death.
• 30 Conversion of Apostle Paul on road to Damascus.

Apostolic era (33-100)

• 33 The Holy Spirit descends on the day of Pentecost, filling the followers of Jesus Christ with power from on high.
• 34 St. Peter founds the See of Antioch.
• 35 The name Christian is first used in Antioch.
• 37 St. Joseph of Arimathea travels to Britain and lands in Glastonbury.
• 49 Apostolic Council of Jerusalem rules that Gentiles do not have to become Jews before becoming Christians.
• 50 The Apostle Matthew finishes the Gospel of Matthew in Aramaic.
• 62 Martyrdom of Apostle James the Just, the Lord's brother and bishop of Jerusalem.
• 63 St. Aristobulus consecrated as first Bishop of Britain.
• 64-67 Persecution of Christians by Emperor Nero.
• 64 Martyrdom of the Apostle Paul in Rome.
• 67 Martyrdom of the Apostle Peter in Rome; Apostle Linus elected first bishop of Rome.
• 68 Suicide of Emperor Nero.
• 69 St. Ignatius of Antioch consecrated to the episcopacy in Antioch.
• 70 Apostle Mark writes his Gospel; the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans; expulsion of the Christians from the synagogues; Johanan Ben Zacchai founds a college at Jamnia that became the seat of the Sanhedrin and the religious centre of Judaism from A.D. 70-135, enabling the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism.
• 71 Apostle Mark introduces Christianity to Egypt.
• 75 Judea, Galilea and Samaria are renamed Palaestina by the Romans.
• 80 Gospel of Luke written by the Apostle Luke; Jewish historian (and former general) Josephus writes the Antiquities.
• ca.80-90 The Didache is written, also called The Teaching (or Doctrine) of the Twelve Apostles.
• 85 Acts of the Apostles is composed by the Apostle Luke.
• 90 Council of Jamnia (Javneh) marks the final separation and distinction between the Jewish and Christian communities, including rejection of the Septuagint or Koine Greek Old Testament widely then in use among the Hellenized Jewish diaspora.
• 95 Apostle John writes the Book of Revelation.
• 96-98 Persecution of Christians under Emperor Domitian.
• 96 Gospel of John written by that apostle as a supplement and further theological illumination of the Synoptic Gospels.
• 100 Death of the Apostle John the Theologian.

Ante-Nicene era (100-325)

• 107 Martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch.
• 124 According to Eusebius, both Quadratus and Aristides presented Christian apologies to Emperor Hadrian at Athens.
• 130 Conversion of Justin Martyr.
• 132 Jews, led by Bar Kochba, whom some identify as the Messiah, revolt against Rome.
• 135 Christmas instituted as a holy day in Rome.
• 136 Emperor Hadrian crushes the Jewish resistance, forbids Jews from ever entering Jerusalem, and changes the name of the city to Aelia Capitolina; first recorded use of the title Pope for the bishop of Rome by Pope Hyginus.
• 144 Excommunication of Marcion for his heretical rejection of the Old Testament and for his semi-Gnostic teachings, particularly Docetism.
• 150 St. Justin Martyr describes the Divine Liturgy.
• 155 Martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna.
• 156 Beginning of Montanism.
• 165 Martyrdom of Justin.
• ca.170 The Muratorian Canon, the oldest known canon or list of books of the New Testament, by an anonymous compiler, recognized the Four Gospels, Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, 1st and 2nd John, Jude, and Revelation; it omitted Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter and 3 John; (it also included the Wisdom of Solomon and the Revelation of Peter).
• 180 St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes Against Heresies.
• 190 Pantaenus founds the Catechetical School at Alexandria.
• 197 Quartodeciman controversy.
• 200 Martyrdom of St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
• 203 Emperor Septimus Severus issues an edict against Christianity and Judaism.
• 206 King Abgar IX converts Edessa to Christianity.
• ca.209 St. Alban, protomartyr of Britain, was killed for his faith by Roman authorities in one of the few persecutions of Christians to take place on the island.
• 215 Conversion of Tertullian to Montanism.
• 225 Death of Tertullian.
• 232 Heraclas becomes Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria on the death of Demetrius.
• 246 Paul of Thebes retreats to the Egyptian desert and becomes the first Christian hermit.
• 249-251 Persecution under the Emperor Decius; the 10 Holy Martyrs of Crete (December 23); Martyr Nikon, and the 199 Disciples with him in Sicily (March 23).
• 251-253 Persecution under Emperor Gaius.
• 253-260 Persecution under Emperor Valerian.
• 260 Paul of Samosata begins his heretical preaching against the divinity of Christ.
• 264 Excommunication of Paul of Samosata.
• 284 Diocletian becomes Roman emperor, persecutes Church and martyrs an estimated one million Christians.
• 285 St. Anthony the Great flees to the desert to pursue a life of prayer.
• 301 St. Gregory the Illuminator converts King Tiridates I of Armenia to the Christian faith.
• 302 The 20,000 Martyrs burned at Nicomedia (December 28).
• 310 Armenia becomes first Christian nation; persecution of Christians under Persian King Shapur II (310-379).
• 311 Rebellion of the Donatists in Carthage.
• 312 Conversion of Constantine the Great, who defeats Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and becomes Emperor of the West.
• 313 Edict of Milan issued by St. Constantine the Great and his co-emperor Licinius, officially declaring religious freedom in the Roman Empire and specifically naming toleration for Christianity.
• 314 Condemnation of Donatism as a heresy.
• 318 Publication of On the Incarnation by St Athanasius, influencing the condemnation of Arianism.
• 318 St. Pachomius the Great, disciple of Anthony the Great, organizes a community of ascetics at Tabennis in Egypt, founding cenobitic monasticism.
• 320 Expulsion of Arius by St. Alexander of Alexandria.
• 323 Constantine the Great builds a church on the site of the martyrdom of St. Peter in Rome.

Nicene era (325-451)

• 325 First Ecumenical Council held in Nicea, condemning Arianism, setting the Paschalion, and issuing the first version of the Nicene Creed.
• 326 Discovery of the True Cross by the Empress St. Helena.
• 326 King Miraeus of Georgia becomes Christian.
• 328 Athanasius the Great becomes bishop of Alexandria.
• 329 St. Athanasius ordains St. Frumentius (Abba Selama) to the priesthood and commissions him to evangelize Ethiopia.
• 330 Constantinople is founded as the Christian capital of the Roman Empire; Amoun and Macarius the Great found monasteries in the Egyptian desert.
• 333 St. Constantine the Great commissioned Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea and church historian, to prepare 50 copies of the Bible for churches in the new capital.
• 336-338 Athanasius the Great goes into exile in Treves, telling Europeans about the monastic rule of St. Pachomius the Great, awakening interest in monasticism in Europe.
• 340 Conversion of Wulfila to Arianism, subsequently missionizing the Goths with his heretical doctrine.
• 348 Death of St. Pachomius the Great.
• 350 St. Ninian establishes the church Candida Casa at Whithorn in Galloway, Scotland, beginning the missionary effort to the Picts.
• 356 Death of St. Anthony the Great.
• 358 St. Basil the Great founds the monastery of Annesos in Pontus, the model for Eastern monasticism.
• 360 St. Martin of Tours founds first French monastery at Liguge.
• 361 Julian the Apostate becomes Roman emperor.
• 367 St. Athanasius of Alexandria writes his Paschal letter, listing for the first time the canon of the New Testament of the Holy Scriptures, including all 27 NT Books.
• 373 Death of St. Athanasius the Great.
• 374 Election of Ambrose as bishop of Milan.
• 375 St. Basil the Great writes On the Holy Spirit, confirming the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
• 376 Visigoths convert to Arian Christianity.
• 380 Christianity established as the official faith of the Roman Empire by Emperor St. Theodosius the Great.
• 381 Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, condemning Macedonianism/Pneumatomachianism and Appollinarianism, declaring the divinity of the Holy Spirit, confirming the previous Ecumenical Council, and completing the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
• 386 Panagia Soumela Monastery founded in Trebizond, Pontus, Asia Minor, after the wonderworking icon of the Virgin Mary of Soumela, believed to have been painted by the Apostle Luke, appears at Mt. Melas.
• 395 St. Augustine becomes bishop of Hippo.
• 398 St. John Chrysostom becomes Archbishop of Constantinople.
• 400 Translation of the Holy Scriptures into Latin as the Vulgate by St. Jerome.
• 401 St. Augustine of Hippo writes Confessions.
• 403 Abduction of Patrick to Ireland to serve as a slave; Victricius, Bishop of Rouen and missionary, visited Britain for the purpose of bringing peace to the island's clergy, who were in the midst of a dispute.
• 406 A combined barbarian force of Suevi, Alans, Vandals & Burgundians swept into central Gaul, severing contact between Rome and Britain.
• 407 Death of John Chrysostom in exile.
• 410 Fall of Rome to the Visigoths under Alaric I; escape of St. Patrick back to Britain; Emperor Honorius of Rome tells Britain to attend to its own affairs; Zosmius reports Roman officials were expelled from Britain and the native government established independence.
• 411 Pelagius condemned at a council in Carthage.
• 412 St. Cyril succeeds his uncle Theophilus as Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria.
• 415 Pelagius cleared at a synod in Jerusalem and a provincial synod in Diospolis (Lydda); St. John Cassian founds convent at Marseilles.
• 416 Councils in Carthage and Milevis condemn Pelagius and convince Pope Innocent I of Rome to excommunicate him.
• 418 Council in Carthage anathematizes Pelagianism by way of endorsing Augustinian anthropology.
• 426 St. Augustine of Hippo writes The City of God.
• 428 Nestorius becomes patriarch of Constantinople.
• 429 Pope Celestine I dispatches Bishops Germanus of Auxerre to Britain and St. Palladius to Ireland as missionary bishops and to combat the Pelagian heresy; while in Britain, Germanus, a former military man, having baptised his troops, led them to the "Alleluia" victory on the Welsh border against a Pictish and Saxon army.
• 431 Third Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus, condemning Nestorianism and Pelagianism, confirming the use of the term Theotokos to refer to the Virgin Mary; the council also grants autocephaly to the Church of Cyprus;
• 432 Return of Patrick to Ireland to begin missionary work.
• 433 The Formulary of Peace completes the work of the Third Ecumenical Council by reconciling Cyril of Alexandria with John of Antioch.
• 444 Death of St. Cyril of Alexandria.
• 445 Founding of the monastery at Armagh in northern Ireland.
• 449 Robber Synod of Ephesus, presided over by Dioscorus of Alexandria, with an order from the emperor to acquit Eutyches.
• 450 First monasteries established in Wales; Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britian, the Adventus Saxonum; death of Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna (433-450), famed for his eloquence in preaching.

Byzantine era (451-843)

• 451 Fourth Ecumenical Council meets at Chalcedon, condemning Eutychianism and Monophysitism, affirming doctrine of two perfect and invisible but separate natures of Christ (see miracle of St Evphemia of Chalcedon, Nov 11); this eventually led to a schism, with the Church of Alexandria being divided into Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian factions, with a similar schism occurring in the Church of Antioch along with it; Church of Jerusalem is recognized as a patriarchate by the Council of Chalcedon.
• 452 Proterios of Alexandria (replacement of Dioscorus), convenes synod in Alexandria to reconcile Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian groups.
• 459 Death of Symeon the Stylite.
• 466 Church of Antioch elevates the bishop of Mtskheta to the rank of Catholicos of Kartli, thus rendering the Church of Georgia autocephalous.
• 476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire when Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the West was deposed by Germanic chieftain Odoacer; in an unstable political environment, the Church of Rome slowly developed a centralized structure, concentrating religious as well as secular authority in the office of the Pope, the bishop of Rome.
• 477 Timothy Aelurus of Alexandria, exiles Chalcedonian bishops from Egypt.
• 482 Byzantine emperor Zeno I issues the Henotikon edict (Act of Union), in an attempt to reconcile the differences between the supporters of Orthodoxy and Monophysitism.
• 484 Acacian Schism: Pope Felix III excommunicates Peter Mongus, patriarch of Alexandria, and Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, causing a schism between eastern and western Christianity that lasted 35 years (to 519).
• 484 Founding of the Monastery of St. Sabbas in the Judean wilderness; Synod of Beth Papat in Persia declares the Nestorian doctrine as the official theology of the Assyrian Church of the East, centered in Edessa.
• 488 Death of Peter the Fuller, the non-Chalcedonian Patriarch of Antioch.
• 489 Emperor Zeno I closed the Nestorian academy in Edessa, which was then transferred under Sassanian Persian auspices to Nisibis.
• 490 St. Brigid founds the monastery of Kildare in Ireland.
• 494 Pope Gelasius I delineated the relationship between church and state in his letter Duo sunt, written to Emperor Anastasius; during the Acacian schism he asserted the primacy of Rome over the entire Church, setting the model for subsequent popes’ claims of papal supremacy.
• 496 Pope Gelasius I dedicated February 14 as Saint Valentine's Day, banning the pre-Christian Roman festival of Lupercalia (July 30 in the Orthodox Church).
• ca. 500 Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite writes The Mystical Theology.
• 502 Start of Byzantine-Sassanid wars lasting until 562.
• 518 Severus Patriarch of Antioch (512-518) appointed by Emperor Anastasius, is deposed by Emperor Justin I for his Monophysitism.
• 519 The Eastern and Western churches are reconciled with the end of the Acacian schism.
• 521 St. Columba of Iona is born.
• 527 Dionysius Exiguus working on the Gregorian Calendar calculated the date of birth of Jesus incorrectly.
• 529 Pagan University of Athens closed and replaced by Christian university in Constantinople; St. Benedict of Nursia founds monastery of Monte Cassino and codifies Western monasticism; Council of Orange condemns Pelagianism; the Church of the Nativity is burnt down in the Samaritan revolt of 529.
• 529 Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) is issued from 529 to 534, a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence in four parts: the Codex Justinianus, Digesta (Pandects), Institutiones, and Novellae, serving to revive Roman law; ultimately this became the foundation of all civil law, also influencing ecclesiastical law.
• 532 Justinian orders the building of a new cathedral, beginning of the construction of the Hagia Sophia (532-537).
• 533 Mercurius is elected Pope of Rome and takes the name of John II, the first pope to change his name upon election.
• 533 Foundation of the Diocese of Selefkia in Central Africa by the Emperor Justinian.
• 534 Final edition of the Codex Justinianus (Code of Justinian) is published, including numerous provisions securing the status of Orthodox Christianity as the state religion of the empire.
• 534 Roman Empire destroys the Arian kingdom of the Vandals; Malta becomes a Byzantine province (534-870).
• 536 Patriarch Mennas of Constantinople (536-552) summoned a synod in May-June 536 where Severus was anathematized; the sentence was ratified by Justinian.
• 537 Construction of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is completed by Emperor St. Justinian the Great.
• 539 Ravenna becomes an exarchate of the Byzantine Empire (539-751).
• 541 Jacob Baradeus, bishop of Edessa, organizes the Non-Chalcedonian Church in western Syria (the "Jacobites"), which spreads to Armenia and Egypt.
• 543 The doctrine of apocatastasis is condemned by the Synod of Constantinople.
• 544 Jacob Baradeus consecrated Sergius of Tella as bishop of Antioch, opening the lasting schism between the Syrian Orthodox Church and Eastern Orthodox Church; Founding of the monastery at Clonmacnoise in Ireland by St. Ciaran.
• 545 The Synod of Brefi is held at Llandewi Brefi in Wales to condemn the Pelagian heresy.
• 546 St. Columba founds monastery of Derry in Ireland.
• 553 Fifth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in an attempt to reconcile Chalcedonians with non-Chalcedonians—the Three Chapters of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa are condemned for their pro-Nestorian nature, and Origen and his writings are also condemned.
• 553 The Ostrogoth Kingdom is conquered by the Byzantines after the Battle of Mons Lactarius and the Italian peninsula was, for a short time, reintegrated into the empire.
• 556 St. Columba founds monastery of Durrow in Ireland.
• 563 Re-consecration of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople after its dome is rebuilt; St. Columba arrives on Iona and establishes his monastery there, founding his mission to the Picts.
• 564 Death of St. Petroc.
• 569 Final schism between Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians in Egypt; St. David holds the Synod of Victoria to re-assert the anti-pelagian decrees agreed at Brefi.
• 570 Death of St. Gildas; Birth of Muhammad, founder of Islam.
• 580 Monte Cassino sacked by the Lombards, sending its monks fleeing to Rome; the Slavs begin to migrate into the Balkans and Greece.
• 589 At Council of Toledo in Spain, the Filioque is added to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in an attempt to combat Arianism.
• 590 Irish missionary St. Columbanus founds monasteries in France (Luxeuil in Burgundy).
• 593 Anastasius the Sinaite is restored as Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.
• 596 St. Gregory the Dialogist sends St. Augustine along with forty other monks to southern Britain to convert the pagans.
• ca. 600 The Ladder of Divine Ascent written by St. John Climacus; St. Gregory the Dialogist inspired the development of Gregorian Chant through his liturgical reforms.
• 601 Augustine of Canterbury converts King St. Ethelbert of Kent and establishes the see of Canterbury.
• 602 Final series of climactic wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Empire (602-627); St. Augustine of Canterbury meets with the Welsh Bishops, stating that they have been acting contrary to Church teachings, failing to keep Easter at the prescribed Roman time and not administering baptism according to the Roman rite; he also insists that they help in the conversion of the Saxons, and look to Canterbury as their spiritual centre.
• 604 Mellitus becomes the first Bishop of London and founds the first St. Paul's Cathedral.
• 605 Death of Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, buried in St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.
• 609 The Pantheon in Rome is made a church, consecrated to the Virgin Mary and all saints (Santa Maria dei Martiri).
• 610 Heraclius changes the official language of the Empire from Latin to Greek, already the lingua franca of the vast majority of the population.
• 612 The Holy Sponge and the Holy Lance are brought to Constantinople from Palestine.
• 614 Persian sack of Jerusalem under Chosroes II of Persia; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is damaged by fire, the True Cross is captured, and over 65,000 Christians in Jerusalem are massacred.
• 615 Death of Columbanus in Italy.
• 617 Persian Army conquered Chalcedon after a long siege.
• 618 Death of St Kevin, Abbot of Glendalough, Ireland.
• 620 The Slavs attack Thessaloniki.
• 622 Year one of the Islamic calendar begins, during which the hejira occurs, Muhammad and his followers emigrate from Mecca to Medina.
• 626 Akathist Hymn to the Virgin Mary written, after Constantinople was liberated from a siege of 80,000 Avars, Slavs and the Persian fleet.
• 627 Pope St. Gregory the Dialogist sends Paulinus to found the see of York and convert King Edwin of Northumbria.
• 627 Emperor Heraclius decisively defeats the Sassanid Persians At The Battle of Nineveh, surrounding their capital Ctesiphon, recovering the True Cross, and breaking the power of the Sassanid dynasty.
• 630 Second Elevation of the Holy Cross: Emperor Heraclius entered Jerusalem on 21 March amidst great rejoicing, transferring the Cross of Christ with great solemnity into the temple of the Resurrection together with Patriarch Zacharios (609-633).
• 635 Founding of Lindisfarne Monastery by St. Aidan, a monk from Iona; Cynegils, king of Wessex, converts to Christianity.
• 636 Capture of Jerusalem by the Muslim Arabs after the pivotal Battle of Yarmuk.
• 638 Arabs allow Jews to return to Jerusalem.
• 640 Muslim conquest of Syria; in Egypt the Battle of Heliopolis between Arab Muslim armies and Byzantium opened the door for the Muslim conquest of the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa.
• 641 Capture of Alexandria by Muslim Arabs.
• 642 Muslim conquest of Egypt.
• 646 Alexandria is recaptured by Muslim Arabs after a Byzantine attempt to retake Egypt fails, ending nearly ten centuries of Greco-Roman Civilization in Egypt.
• 647 Arabs invade Cyprus.
• 650 Final defeat of Arianism as Lombards convert to Orthodox Christianity.
• 657 Founding of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire, England.
• 662 Death of St. Maximus the Confessor.
• 663 Emperor Constans II is last Eastern emperor to set foot in Rome.
• 664 Synod of Whitby held in northern England, harmonizing Celtic and Roman liturgical practices in England; Ionian monk Wilfrid appointed as Archbishop of York.
• 668 St. Theodore of Tarsus is appointed as archbishop of Canterbury.
• 669-78 First Arab siege of Constantinople.
• 670 Composition of Caedmon's Hymn by St. Caedmon of Whitby.
• 680-681 Sixth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, condemning Monothelitism and affirming the Christology of St. Maximus the Confessor, affirming that Christ has both a natural (human) will and a divine will; Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople and Pope Honorius of Rome are both explicitly anathematized for their support of the Monothelite heresy.
• 685 First monastics come to Mount Athos.
• 687 Destruction of Whitby Abbey by Danish raiders.
• 688 Emperor Justinian II and Caliph al-Malik sign a treaty neutralizing Cyprus.
• 692 Quinisext Council (also called the Penthekte Council or the Council in Trullo) held in Constantinople, issuing canons which are seen as completing the work of the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, and declaring the Church of Jerusalem to be a patriarchate.
• 698 Muslim conquest of Carthage.
• 706 Use of Greek as the administrative language was abolished in Egypt, as government edicts were redacted in Arabic starting in 706; the primary spoken language remained Coptic until the tenth century when Arabic had replaced it, and Coptic became relegated to a liturgical language.
• 710 Pope Constantine makes last papal visit to Constantinople before 1967.
• ca. 715 Lindisfarne Gospels produced in Northumbria (Northern England).
• 715 The Grand Mosque of Damascus, is built over the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
• 716 Monastery at Iona conforms to Roman liturgical usage.
• 716 St. Boniface's first missionary journey to Frisia.
• 717 The Pictish king Nechtan expels the monks from the island of Iona.
• 717-18 Second Arab siege of Constantinople.
• 719 Nubian Christians transferred their allegiance from the Greek Orthodox Church to the Coptic Church, according to an entry in the chronicle of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Eutychius (932-940).
• 726 Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian starts campaign against the icons.
• 731 Venerable Bede completes Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
• 732 Muslim invasion of Europe is stopped by the Franks at the Battle of Tours.
• 733 Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian withdraws the Balkans, Sicily and Calabria from the jurisdiction of the Pope in response to Gregory III's support of a revolt in Italy against iconoclasm; the break between the papacy and the empire is almost complete.
• 734 Egbert becomes bishop of York, founding a library and making the city a renowned centre of learning.
• 735 Death of the Venerable Bede; the See of York achieves archepiscopal status.
• 739 Emperor Leo III (717-41) publishes his Ecloga Law Code, designed to introduce Christian principle into law; Battle of Akroinon where Byzantine forces defeat an Umayyad invasion of Asia Minor; death of Willibrord (658-739), Archbishop of Utrecht and Enlightener of the Netherlands.
• 740 The Khazars, a nation of the Black Sea steppe, though not ethnically Jewish, voluntarily convert to Judaism.
• 746 Byzantine forces regain Cyprus from the Arabs.
• 749 Death of John of Damascus.
• 750 Donation of Constantine accepted as a legitimate document, used by Pope Stephen II to prove territorial and jurisdictional claims.
• 754 Iconoclastic Council held in Constantinople under the authority of Emperor Constantine V Copronymus, condemning icons and declaring itself to be the Seventh Ecumenical Council; Constantine begins the dissolution of the monasteries.
• 754 Death of St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany.
• 781 King Charlemagne of the Franks summons the monk and scholar Alcuin of York to head the palace school at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle).
• 787 Seventh Ecumenical Council is held in Nicea, condemning iconoclasm and affirming the veneration of icons, declaring that worship is due to God alone, and that the honor paid to icons passes to its prototype.
• 793 Sack of Lindisfarne Priory, beginning Viking attacks on England.
• 796 The Yorkist Scholar, Alcuin, is made Abbot of Saint-Martin in Tours by King Charlemagne of the Franks.
• 800 Charlemagne is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Leo III of Rome on Christmas day; Book of Kells produced in Ireland.
• 800 Ambassadors of Caliph Harunu al-Rashid give keys to the Holy Sepulchre to the Frankish king Charlemagne, acknowledging some Frankish control over the interests of Christians in Jerusalem.
• 824 Byzantine Crete falls to Arab insurgents fleeing from the Umayyad Emir of Cordoba Al-Hakam I, establishing an emirate on the island until the Byzantine reconquest in 960.
• 826 St. Ansgar arrives in Denmark and begins preaching; King Harald Klak of Denmark converts to Christianity.
• ca. 829-842 Icon of the Virgin Mary-Portaitissa appears on Mount Athos near Iviron Monastery.
• 836 Death of St. Theodore the Studite.
• 843 Triumph of Orthodoxy occurs on first Sunday of Great Lent, restoring icons to churches.

Late Byzantine era (843-1453)

• 846 Muslim raid of Rome.
• 852 St. Ansgar founds the churches at Hedeby and Ribe in Denmark.
• 858 St. Photius the Great becomes patriarch of Constantinople.
• 861 Ss. Cyril and Methodius depart from Constantinople to missionize the Slavs; council presided over by papal legates held in Constantinople which confirms St. Photius the Great as patriarch.
• 862 Ratislav of Moravia converts to Christianity.
• 863 First translations of Biblical and liturgical texts into Church Slavonic by Ss. Cyril and Methodius.
• 863 The Venetians steal relics of St Mark from Alexandria.
• 864 Prince Boris of Bulgaria is baptized.
• 867 Council in Constantinople held, presided over by Photius, which anathematizes Pope Nicholas I of Rome for his attacks on the work of Greek missionaries in Bulgaria and the use by papal missionaries of the heretical Filioque; Pope Nicholas dies before hearing the news of his excommunication; Basil the Macedonian has Emperor Michael III murdered and usurps the Imperial throne, reinstating Ignatius as patriarch of Constantinople.
• 869-870 The Robber Council of 869-870 is held, deposing St. Photius the Great from the Constantinopolitan see and putting the rival claimant Ignatius on the throne, declaring itself to be the "Eighth Ecumenical Council."
• 870 Conversion of Serbia.
• 877 Death of St. Ignatius I of Constantinople, who appoints St. Photius to succeed him.
• 877 Arab Muslims conquer all of Sicily from Byzantium and make Palermo their capital.
• 879-880 Eighth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, confirming Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople, anathematizing additions to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and declaring that the prerogatives and jurisdiction of the Roman pope and the Constantinopolitan patriarch are essentially equal; the council is reluctantly accepted by Pope John VIII of Rome.
• 883 Muslims burn the monastery of Monte Cassino.
• 885 Mount Athos gains political autonomy.
• 885 Death of St. Methodius, apostle to the Slavs.
• 899 Death of King and Saint Alfred the Great of Wessex & All England
• 911 Vision of the Theotokos to St. Andrew the Fool-for-Christ protecting Constantinople from an invasion of Slavs.
• 911 Russian envoys visit Constantinople to ratify a treaty, sent by Oleg, Grand Prince of Rus'.
• 912 Normans become Christian.
• 944 City of Edessa recovered by the Byzantine army, including Icon Not Made By Hands.
• 945 St. Dunstan becomes Abbot of Glastonbury.
• ca. 950 Monastery of Hosios Loukas founded near Stiris in Greece.
• 957 St. Olga baptized in Constantinople.
• 960 Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas re-captures Crete for the Byzantines, who held it until 1204 when it fell to Venetian crusaders.
• 962 Denmark becomes a Christian nation with the baptism of King Harald Blaatand ("Bluetooth").
• 963 St. Athanasius of Athos establishes the first major monastery on Mount Athos, the Great Lavra.
• 965 Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas gained Cyprus completely for the Byzantines.
• 968 Rila Monastery founded.
• 972 Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-976) granted Mount Athos its first charter (Typikon).
• 973 Moravia assigned to the Diocese of Prague, putting the West Slavic tribes under jurisdiction of German church.
• 978 Death of King Edward the Martyr.
• 988 Baptism of Rus' begins with the conversion of St. Vladimir of Kiev.
• 995 St. Olaf of Norway proclaims Norway to be a Christian kingdom.
• 1000 Christianization of Greenland and Iceland.
• 1008 Conversion of Sweden.
• 1009 Patriarch Sergius II of Constantinople removes the name of Pope Sergius IV of Rome from the diptychs of the Church of Constantinople, because the pope had written a letter to the patriarch including the Filioque.
• 1009 Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem destroyed by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, founder of the Druze.
• 1014 Filioque used for the first time in Rome by Pope Benedict VIII at the coronation of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1015 Death of St. Vladimir of Kiev.
• 1017 Danish king Canute converts to Christianity.
• 1022 Death of St. Simeon the New Theologian.
• 1027 Frankish protectorate over Christian interests in Jerusalem is replaced by a Byzantine protectorate, which begin reconstruction of Holy Sepulchre.
• 1036 Byzantine Emperor Michael IV makes a truce with the Caliph of Egypt to allow rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Byzantine masons; Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Emperor (Eastern Vikings/Rus) sent to protect pilgrims.
• 1045-50 The Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod is built, the oldest Orthodox church building in Russia, executed in an architectural style more austere than the Byzantine, reminicent of the Romanesque.
• 1048 Re-consecration of Holy Sepulchre.
• 1051 Monastery of the Kiev Caves founded.
• 1052 Edward the Confessor founds Westminster Abbey, near London.
• 1054 Cardinal Humbert excommunicates Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, a major centerpoint in the formation of the Great Schism between East and West.
• 1059 Errors of Berengar of Tours condemned in Rome; the term transubstantiation begins to come in to use, ascribed to Peter Damian.
• 1066 Normans invade England flying the banner of the Pope of Rome, defeating King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings, beginning the reformation of the church and society there to align with Latin continental ecclesiology and politics.
• 1071 Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem and defeat Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, beginning Islamification of Asia Minor.
• 1071 Norman princes led by Robert Guiscard capture Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, bringing to an end over five centuries of Byzantine rule in the south.
• ca.1071-1176 Byzantine epic poem Digenes Akrites is written, set in the ninth and tenth centuries, and inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor, presents a comprehensive picture of the intense frontier life of the Akrites, the border guards of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1073 Hildebrand becomes Pope Gregory VII and launches the Gregorian reforms (celibacy of the clergy, primacy of the papacy over the empire, right of the Pope to depose emperors).
• 1075 Dictatus Papae document advances Papal supremacy.
• 1088 Founding of monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos.
• 1095 Launching of the First Crusade.
• 1096 Persecution of Jews by Crusaders.
• 1098 Anselm of Canterbury completes his Cur Deus homo, marking a radical divergence of Western theology of the atonement from that of the East.
• 1098 Crusaders capture Antioch.
• 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states known collectively as Outremer.
• 1119 Order of Knights Templar founded.
• ca.1131-45 Coptic Pope of Alexandria Gabriel II initiates the acceptance of Arabic as a liturgical language (in addition to the Coptic), with his Arabic translation of the Liturgy.
• 1144 Bernard of Clairvaux calls for a Second Crusade to rescue the besieged Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and Louis VII of France and Konrad III of Germany join the Crusaders, but are defeated by Muslims; Muslims take Christian stronghold of Edessa.
• 1147 Moscow was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruki, a ruler of the northeastern Rus, who built the first fortress, or Kremlin, along the Moscow River.
• 1149 Building on the work of Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX in 1048, the crusaders began to renovate the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in a Romanesque style, adding a bell tower.
• 1177 Latin King Baldwin of Jerusalem and his knights, with the Templars, defeated the Muslim army of Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.
• 1179 Death of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Benedictine Abbess, medieval mystic, and polymath.
• 1180 Last formal, canonical acceptance of Latins to communion at an Orthodox altar in Antioch.
• 1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem after destroying crusader army at the Battle of Hattin, and returns Christian holy places to the Orthodox Church.
• 1189 Third Crusade led by King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, King Philip Augustus II of France, and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
• ca.1189 In response to the capture of old Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187, Ethiopian Emperor Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (1189-1229) ordered the construction of a holy city hewn from rock as a New Jerusalem, thus building the twelve monolithic rock-cut churches in Lalibela, one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Axum, and a center of pilgrimage.
• 1191 Cyprus taken from the Byzantines by English King Richard I "Lion Heart."
• 1198 Cyprus sold by England to Frankish crusaders.
• 1204 Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople, laying waste to the city and stealing many holy relics and other items; Great Schism generally regarded as having been completed by this act.
• 1211 Venetian crusaders conquer Byzantine Crete, retaining it until ousted by the Ottoman Turks in 1669.
• 1235 Death of St. Sava of Serbia.
• 1237 Golden Horde (Mongols) begin subjugation of Russia.
• 1240 Mongols sack Kiev; Prince Alexander Nevsky defeats Swedish army at Battle of the Neva.
• 1242 Alexander Nevsky's Novgorodian force defeats Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Lake Peipus, a major defeat for the Catholic crusaders.
• 1244 Jerusalem is conquered and completely razed by Khwarezmian mercenaries (Oghuz Turks) serving under the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt Salih Ayyub, triggering the Seventh Crusade.
• 1247 Ayyubids conquer Jerusalem, driving out the Khwarezmian Turks.
• 1248-54 Seventh Crusade.
• 1258 Michael VIII Palaiologos seizes the throne of the Nicaean Empire, founding the last Roman (Byzantine) dynasty, beginning reconquest of the Greek peninsula from Latins.
• 1259 Byzantines defeat Latin Principality of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia, marking the beginning of the Byzantine recovery of Greece.
• 1261 End of Latin occupation of Constantinople and restoration of Orthodox patriarchs.
• 1261 Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos makes Mystras seat of the new Despotate of Morea, where a Byzantine renaissance occurred.
• 1268 Egyptian Mamelukes capture Antioch.
• 1274 Council of Lyons held, proclaiming union between the Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West, but generally unaccepted in the East.
• 1275 Unionist Patriarch of Constantinople John XI Beccus elected to replace Patriarch Joseph I Galesiotes, who opposed the Council of Lyons.
• ca. 1280 Kebra Nagast ("Book of the Glory of Kings") compiled, a repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings.
• 1281 Pope Martin IV authorizes a Crusade against the newly re-established Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, excommunicating Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the Greeks and renouncing the union of 1274; French and Venetian expeditions set out toward Constantinople but are forced to turn back in the following year.
• 1291 Fall of Acre; end of crusading in Holy Land.
• 1302 Papal Bull Unam Sanctum issued by Pope Boniface VIII proclaims Papal supremacy.
• 1326 Moscow became the seat of the Russian Orthodox Metropolitanate, as Metropolitan Peter moved his see from Kiev to Vladimir and then to Moscow.
• 1309 The island of Rhodes falls to the Knights of St. John, who establish their headquarters there, renaming themselves the Knights of Rhodes (1309-1522).
• 1336 Meteora in Greece is established as a center of Orthodox monasticism.
• 1338 Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) writes Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, defending the Orthodox practice of hesychast spirituality and the use of the Jesus Prayer.
• 1341-47 Byzantine civil war between John VI Cantacuzenus (1347–54) and John V Palaeologus (1341–91).
• 1341-51 Three sessions of the Ninth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, affirming hesychastic theology of St. Gregory Palamas and condemning rationalistic philosophy of Barlaam of Calabria.
• 1344 Death of Amda Syon, Emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1349 Prince Stephen Dushan of Serbia assumes the title of Tsar (Caesar).
• 1354 Ottoman Turks make first settlement in Europe, at Gallipoli.
• 1359 Death of St. Gregory Palamas.
• 1360 Death of St John Koukouzelis, the Hymnographer of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos, maistor (master of music), theorist and composer, who codified the second major form of Byzantine Chant known as kalophonic, being highly melismatic, protracted, embellished and grandiose.
• 1365 Crusaders under Latin King Peter I of Cyprus sacked Alexandria, Egypt.
• 1379 Western Great Schism ensues, including simultaneous reign of three Popes of Rome.
• 1383 St. Stephen of Perm, missionary to the Zyrians, consecrated bishop.
• 1389 Serbs defeated by Ottoman Turks of Sultan Murad I at the battle of Kosovo Polje.
• 1391-98 Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully besiege Constantinople for the first time.
• 1396 First English Bible translated by John Wyclif.
• 1410 Iconographer Andrei Rublev paints his most famous icon depicting the three angels who appeared to Abraham and Sarah, the angels being considered a type of the Holy Trinity.
• 1417 End of Western Great Schism at the Council of Constance.
• 1422 Second unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Constantinople.
• 1439 Ecclesiastical reunion with the West attempted at the Council of Florence, where only St. Mark of Ephesus refuses to capitulate to the demands of the delegates from Rome.
• 1444 Donation of Constantine proved forgery.
• 1448 Church of Russia unilaterally declares its independence from the Church of Constantinople.
• 1452 Unification of Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in Hagia Sophia on West's terms, when Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, under pressure from Rome, allowed the union to be proclaimed.
• 1453 Constantinople falls to invasion of the Ottoman Turks, ending the Roman Empire; Hagia Sophia turned into a mosque.

Post-Imperial era (1453-1821)

• 1455 Gutenberg makes first printed Bible.
• 1480 Spanish Inquisition.
• 1492 Millennialist movements in Moscow, due to end of church calendar.
• 1503 Possessor and Non-Possessor controversy.
• 1517 Maximus the Greek invited to Russia to translate Greek service books and correct Russian ones; Martin Luther nails his Ninety-Five Theses to the door at Wittenburg, sparking Protestant Reformation; Ottomans conquer Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria.
• 1522 Martin Luther's translates New Testament in German and principle of Sola Scriptura becomes formal principle of Protestant Reformation.
• 1526 Non-Possessors attack Tsar Vassily (Basil) III for divorcing his wife, and are driven underground.
• 1534 King Henry VIII declares himself supreme head of the Church of England.
• 1536 Publication of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
• 1540 Death of Emperor Lebna Dengel of Ethiopia; formal founding of the Jesuits.
• 1541 Portuguese expeditionary force arrives in Ethiopia.
• 1542 Ethiopians and Portuguese defeat Ahmad ibn Ibrahim Gran of Adal, neutralizing Adal threat to Ethiopia.
• 1545-63 Council of Trent held to answer the Protestant Reformation.
• 1551 Council of the Hundred Chapters in Russia.
• 1552 Death of St. Basil the Blessed, Fool for Christ.
• 1555 Archbishop Gurian missionary in Kazan (until 1564).
• 1564 Jesuits arrive in Poland.
• 1569 Martyrdom of St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, at the hands of Ivan IV Grozny.
• 1575 Church of Constantinople grants autonomy to Church of Sinai.
• 1581 Ostrozhsky Bible printed by Prince Kurbsky and Ivan Fedorov.
• 1582 Institution of the Gregorian Calendar by Pope Gregory XIII.
• 1589 Autocephaly of the Church of Russia recognized; primate of the Church of Russia styled as patriarch.
• 1596 Union of Brest-Litovsk, several million Ukrainian and Byelorussian Orthodox Christians, living under Polish rule, leave the Church of Constantinople and recognize the Pope of Rome, without giving up their Byzantine liturgy and customs, creating the Uniate church.
• 1609-10 The Douay-Rheims Bible (D-R) is printed, the first complete English Roman Catholic Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate.
• 1611 The Authorized King James Version of the Bible (KJV-AV) is printed, including all of the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books (present in the Septuagint and Vulgate OT), until they were officially removed later by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1885.
• 1627 Pope Cyril Lukaris of Alexandria presents the famous Codex Alexandrinus to King Charles I of England for "safe keeping."
• 1633 Ethiopian emperor Fasilides expels Jesuits and other Roman Catholic missionaries from Ethiopia.
• 1642 Council of Jassy (Iaşi) revises Peter Mogila's confession to remove overtly Roman Catholic theology and confirms canonicity of certain deuterocanonical books.
• 1647 Orthodox church erected in Tunisia.
• 1652 School and hospital established in Old Cairo by Patriarch Joannikios.
• 1652-1658 Patriarch Nikon of Moscow revises liturgical books to bring them into conformity with the Greek liturgical customs, leading to excommunication of dissenters, who become known as the Old Believers.
• 1656 The New Jerusalem Monastery, also known as the Voskresensky Monastery is founded by Patriarch Nikon at Istra near Moscow, intended to represent the Heavenly Jerusalem.
• 1685 Orthodoxy introduced in Beijing, China by the Church of Russia.
• 1715 Metropolitan Arsenios of Thebaid sent to England by Pope Samuel of Alexandria to negotiate with Non-Juror Anglican bishops.
• 1721 Czar Peter I replaces Russian patriarchate with a ruling holy synod.
• 1724 Melkite schism, in which many faithful from the Church of Antioch become Uniates.
• 1760 Holy Trinity St. Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent founded in Russia.
• 1767 Community of Orthodox Greeks establishes itself in New Smyrna, Florida; Ottoman Empire legally divides Church of the Holy Sepulchre among claimants.
• 1768 Jews are massacred during riots in Russia-occupied Poland.
• 1774 Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, bringing Russia for the first time into the Mediterranean as the acknowledged protector of Orthodox Christians.
• 1779 Death of St. Kosmas Aitolos.
• 1782 First publication of the Philokalia; autonomy of Church of Sinai confirmed by Church of Constantinople.
• 1794 Missionaries, including St. Herman of Alaska, arrive at Kodiak Island, bringing Orthodoxy to Russian Alaska; death of St. Paisius Velichkovsky.
• 1796 Nicodemus the Hagiorite published the “Unseen Warfare” in Venice, revising Venetian priest Lorenzo Scupoli's works the “Spiritual Combat” (1599 ed.) and “Path to Paradise” (1600), to remove Latinisms and give a fuller expression to the Patristic doctrine of pure prayer.
• 1800 The Rudder published and printed in Athens.
• 1809-10 Rotunda and edicule exterior of Church of the Holy Sepulchre rebuilt after fire in Ottoman Baroque style.
• 1811 Autocephaly of the Church of Georgia revoked by the Russian imperial state after Georgia's annexation, making it subject to the Church of Russia.

Modern era (1821-1917)

• 1821 Greek independence declared on the Day of Annunciation (March 25), also Kyriopascha; execution of Patr. Gregory V of Constantinople, Abp. Kyprianos of Cyprus, and Abp. Gerasimos of Crete in retaliation.
• 1823 Miracle-working icon of Panagia Evangelistria is excavated on the Greek island of Tinos, according to a vision from St. Pelagia, becoming the most venerated pilgrimage item in Greece, at Church of Evangelistria (Tinos, Greece).
• 1825 Russia and Britain established the Alaska/Canada boundary.
• 1829 Treaty of Adrianople ends Greek War of Independence, culminating in the creation of the modern Greek state.
• ca.1830 Drawing on the works of Greek patristics, Russian poets and literary critics, the Slavophile movement began in Russia attempting to reinforce Orthodox Christian values and Slavic cultural traditions, denouncing "westernizations" by Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and preferring Russian mysticism to Western rationalism.
• 1832 Church of Serbia becomes de facto autocephalous.
• 1833 Church of Greece declares its autocephaly, making it independent of the Church of Constantinople; death of St. Seraphim of Sarov.
• 1847 Restoration of Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem by Pope Pius IX.
• 1848 Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs sent by the primates and synods of the four ancient patriarchates of the Orthodox Church, condemning the Filioque as heresy, declaring the Roman Catholic Church to be heretical, schismatic, and in apostasy, repudiating Ultramontanism and referring to the Photian Council of 879-880 as the "Eighth Ecumenical Council."
• 1850 Church of Constantinople recognizes autocephaly of Church of Greece.
• 1851 Translation of Septuagint by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton; Ottoman Empire recognizes France as supreme Christian authority in Holy Land and grants it possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity.
• 1852 Ottoman Empire makes division of Church of the Holy Sepulchre permanent.
• 1853-56 Crimean War fought between Russia and the Ottoman Empire together with Britain and France, begins over which church would be recognized as the "sovereign authority" of the Christian faith in the Holy Land.
• 1854 Immaculate Conception declared dogma by Roman Catholic Church.
• 1864 First Orthodox parish established on American soil in New Orleans, Louisiana, by Greeks.
• 1865 Church of Romania declares its independence from the Church of Constantinople.
• 1867 Sale of Alaska to United States.
• 1870 Papal Infallibility declared Roman Catholic dogma necessary for salvation by the First Vatican Council.
• 1871 Nikolai Kasatkin establishes Orthodox mission in Japan.
• 1872 Council in Jerusalem declares phyletism to be heresy; Church of Bulgaria gains de facto autocephaly by a decree of the Sultan.
• 1879 Church of Constantinople recognizes autocephaly of Church of Serbia; death of St. Innocent of Alaska.
• 1881 Wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia causes mass migration of Jews (2.5 million Jews settle in the United States, thousands settle in Palestine).
• 1885 Church of Constantinople recognizes autocephaly of Church of Romania; the Archbishop of Canterbury officially removed all of the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books from the King James Bible.
• ca.1890 The “Unseen Warfare” is further revised by Bishop Theophan the Recluse, to remove unnecessary Latinisms and give a fuller expression to the Patristic doctrine of pure prayer.
• 1898 Last Greek patriarch of Antioch deposed.
• 1899 Restoration of Arabs to the Patriarchal throne of Antioch.
• 1900 Martyrdom of Orthodox Christians in Chinese Boxer Rebellion.
• 1904 The Ecumenical Patriarchate publishes the "Patriarchal" Text of the Greek New Testament, based on about twenty Byzantine manuscripts.
• 1905 Seat of Russian Orthodox bishop in America moved from San Francisco to New York, as immigration from Eastern Europe and the reception of ex-Uniates shifts the balance of Orthodox population to eastern North America.
• 1905 Death of Apostolos Makrakis.
• 1907 Archim. Eusebius Matthopoulos founds Zoe Brotherhood.
• 1908 Fr. Nikodemos Sarikas sent to Johannesburg, Transvaal, by Ecumenical Patriarchate as first Orthodox priest there, leaving after a short time for German East Africa (later Tanzania) because of the opposition of Johannesburg Greeks to mission among Africans.
• 1908 Death of St. John of Kronstadt.
• 1912 Death of St. Nicholas of Japan.
• 1915-18 Armenian Genocide in Turkey.

Communist era (1917-1991)

• 1917 British forces capture Jerusalem from Ottoman Empire; Church of Georgia's autocephaly restored de facto by political chaos in Russia; Bolshevik Revolution throws the Church of Russia into chaos, effectively stranding the fledgling Russian Orthodox mission in America.
• 1918 St. Nicholas Romanov, Tsar of Russia murdered together with his wife St. Alexandra and children.
• 1919-1922 Greco-Turkish War; a million refugees flee to Greece joining half a million Greeks who had fled earlier.
• 1920 Death of St. Nektarios of Aegina.
• 1921 Church of Constantinople renounces all claims to jurisdiction in any part of Africa, and Patriarch of Alexandria thenceforth known as the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa; Greek Archdiocese of America is formed.
• 1922 Church of Albania declares autocephaly from the Church of Constantinople; formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia; British Mandate of Palestine begins; Vladimir Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from from Dec.30 1922 to Dec.31 1991.
• 1923 Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia granted autonomy by the Church of Constantinople.
• 1924 Church of Constantinople recognizes autocephaly of Church of Poland; Bp. Daniel William Alexander convenes meeting in Kimberley, South Africa, which decides to secede from the African Church (a Protestant denomination) and affiliate with the "African Orthodox Church" in New York under George McGuire.
• 1925 Church of Romania becomes a patriarchate; first Africans in sub-Saharan Africa baptized in Tanganyika by Fr. Nikodemos Sarikas.
• 1927 Daniel William Alexander travels from South Africa to America to be consecrated a bishop of the African Orthodox Church; Orthodox Archbishopric of Johannesburg established.
• 1928 The Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius is founded to pray and work for Christian Unity.
• 1931 Reception of the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe into the Ecumenical Patriarchate, led by Metr. Eulogius (Georgievsky) of Paris; the USSR banned the sale or importation of Bibles.
• 1932 Daniel William Alexander travels to Uganda to meet Reuben Spartas, establishing African Orthodox Church there.
• 1933 Church of Greece bans Freemasonry.
• 1934 Daniel William Alexander travels to Kenya, establishing African Orthodox Church led by Arthur Gathuna; Clergy who opposed the Nazi regime in Germany had their homes raided by secret police.
• 1935 Critical edition of Septuagint published in Gottingen Germany by Alfred Rahlfs at the Septuaginta-Unternehmens (Institute).
• 1935-40 Italian forces occupy Ethiopia and begin intermittent persecutions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
• 1936-37 Many Russian Orthodox Clerics die in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.
• 1937 Church of Constantinople recognizes autocephaly of Church of Albania.
• 1938 St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York) and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary (South Canaan, Pennsylvania) founded; death of St. Silouan the Athonite.
• 1941-45 Croatian Ustasa terrorists kill 500,000 Orthodox Serbs, expel 250,000 and force 250,000 to convert to Catholicism.
• 1943 Church of Russia recognizes autocephaly of Church of Georgia; first constitution of the African Orthodox Church in East Africa signed by Reuben Spartas and Arthur Gathuna; Joseph Stalin meets with hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church to establish a "patriotic union," granting concessions to the church, including the gathering of the holy synod and the election of Sergius I as Patriarch of Moscow.
• 1945 Church of Bulgaria's autocephaly generally recognized; library of early Christian texts discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt; Soviet Union annexes Czechoslovakia; Church of Russia claims jurisdiction over the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
• 1946 Reuben Spartas of the African Orthodox Church visits Alexandria; Holy Synod of the Church of Alexandria officially recognizes and accepts the African Greek Orthodox Church in Kenya and Uganda.
• 1947 Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered near Qumran in Egypt.
• 1948 Establishment of State of Israel and end of British Mandate of Palestine; Church of Russia re-grants autocephaly to the Church of Poland (after having revoked it in the aftermath of World War II)
• 1948 The Council of Moscow is held on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the independence of the Russian Church from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with representatives of the local Orthodox Churches rejecting all participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) which had just been formed.
• 1950 Pope Pius XII proclaims the Bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma.
• 1951 Church of Russia grants autocephaly to the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
• 1952 New Monastery of Panagia Soumela built in the village of Kastania, in Macedonia, Greece, housing the wonderworking icon of Panagia Soumela, becoming a center of religious pilgrimage.
• 1957 Church of Russia grants autonomy to Church of China.
• 1958 Creation of Western Rite Vicariate in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America with the reception of multiple Western Rite parishes into Orthodoxy.
• 1959 Archbishop Anastasios (Yannoulatos) of Albania establishes inter-Orthodox mission agency Porefthentes to revive the church's mission activities; Autocephaly granted for the Church of Ethiopia as Coptic Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria crowned Abune Baslios as the first Patriarch of Ethiopia.
• 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council held in Rome, initiating major liturgical and theological reforms for the Roman Catholic Church, including restriction of ancient Tridentine Mass and introduction of the Novus Ordo.
• 1961 Death of St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) of Crimea; consecration of first Orthodox Church in Uganda; first Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes.
• 1963 1900th anniversary of martyrdom of Apostle Mark; second Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes.
• 1964 Meeting of Pope Paul VI of Rome and Patriarch Athenagoras I (Spyrou) of Constantinople in Jerusalem; third Pan-Orthodox Conference in Rhodes.
• 1965 Pope Paul VI of Rome and Patriarch Athenagoras I (Spyrou) of Constantinople mutually nullify the excommunications of 1054.
• 1967 Church of Macedonia declares its autocephaly, making it independent of the Church of Serbia (as yet unrecognized).
• 1968 Visit to Patriarchate of Alexandria by Vatican representatives; fourth Pan-Orthodox Conference in Chambesy, Switzerland.
• 1968-71 Millions of Christians, Muslims, Jews and others witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary many times over a three year period over the Coptic Orthodox Church of St Mary at Zeitoun, Cairo, recognized as authentic by the Coptic Orthodox Church and other churches.
• 1970 Orthodox Church in America reconciles with Church of Russia and is granted autocephaly, returning control of Church of Japan to Moscow, which grants it autonomy; glorification of Herman of Alaska in separate services by the ROCOR and the OCA; Abp. Makarios III (Mouskos) of Cyprus baptizes 10,000 into the Orthodox Church in Kenya.
• 1971 Halki Seminary Greek Orthodox Theology Patriarchal School on Heybeliada Island near Istanbul closed by Turkish authorities.
• 1974 1600th anniversary of death of Athanasius the Great.
• 1975 Division in the Antiochian church in North America overcome by the uniting of the two Antiochian archdioceses into one by Metr. Philip (Saliba) of New York and Abp. Michael (Shaheen) of Toledo.
• 1976 First Pre-Synodal Pan-Orthodox Conference at Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambesy, Switzerland.
• 1979 Pope John Paul II visits Ecumenical Patriarchate.
• 1979 Joint Commission of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches for Theological Dialogue established by Pope John Paul II and Patr. Demetrius I (Papadopoulos) of Constantinople.
• 1980 First plenary session of the International Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue in Patmos and Rhodes.
• 1982 Second Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue publishes in Munich first official common document, The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity; second Pre-Synodal Pan-Orthodox Conference in Chambesy, Switzerland.
• 1984 Third Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue meets in Khania, Crete.
• 1985 Founding of Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) as Greek Archdiocesan Mission Center.
• 1986 Third Pre-Synodal Pan-Orthodox Conference in Chambesy, Switzerland.
• 1987 Fourth Joint Commission issues common document Faith, Sacraments and the Unity of the Church in Bari, Italy; Visit by Patr. Demetrius I (Papadopoulos) of Constantinople to the Vatican.
• 1987 A group of twenty parishes of the Evangelical Orthodox Church, originally formed by former Campus Crusade for Christ leaders Peter Gillquist and Jon Braun, are received into the Antiochian Archdiocese, becoming the Antiochian Evangelical Orthodox Mission (AEOM).
• 1988 Millennial anniversary of Orthodoxy in Russia.
• 1988 Fifth Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church meets in Valamo, Finland and publishes common document "The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church."
• 1989 Church of Constantinople recognizes the autocephaly of the Church of Georgia; Elder Ephraim begins founding Athonite-style monasteries in North America.
• 1989 Glorification in Russia of St. Tikhon of Moscow.
• 1990 Sixth Joint Theological Commission session meets in Freising, Germany; the first Russian Orthodox service in seventy years was held in St. Basil's Cathedral in October.

Post-Communist era (1991-Present)

• 1991 Soviet Union collapses, ending Cold War; representatives of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches meet in Chambesy, Switzerland, discussing relations with World Council of Churches.
• 1992 Civil war begins in former Yugoslavia; synaxis of primates of Orthodox churches in Constantinople; Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem presented a list of firm declarations of Orthodox convictions of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which was entered into the minutes of the assembly of Orthodox leaders at the Phanar on the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
• 1993 Seventh Joint Theological Commission session meets in Balamand, Lebanon, issuing common document on Uniatism: Method of Union of the Past, and Present. Search for Full Communion.
• 1993 Church of Cyprus condemns Freemasonry as a religion incompatible with Christianity; Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms published; Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church becomes autocephalous; Optina Pustyn New Martyrs Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov), Monk Ferapont (Pushkarev), and Monk Trophim (Tatarinov) are martyred in a satanic ritualistic manner.
• 1994 Ligonier Meeting in Western Pennsylvania at Antiochian Village held by the majority of Orthodox hierarchs in North America votes to do away with the notion of Orthodox Christians in America being a "diaspora."
• 1995 Ecumenical Bartholomew I visits Vatican.
• 1996 The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America was reorganized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, dividing the administration of the two continents into four parts, the new jurisdictions being the Archdiocese of America, the Metropolis of Toronto (Canada), the Metropolis of Mexico (Central America), and the Metropolis of Buenos Aires (South America).
• 1997 Visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople to US; establishment of dioceses of Bukoba, Madagascar, Ghana and Nigeria; Russian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations enshrined Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion.
• 1998 Church of Constantinople, not recognizing Russia's right to issue a tomos of autocephaly in 1951, issues its own tomos for the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; the Thessaloniki Summit is held in May, with delegates from the local Orthodox Churches meeting to discuss the matter of Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement (WCC).
• 1999 Numerous Serbian Orthodox sites in Kosovo and Metohia destroyed and desecrated during NATO peacekeeping presence.
• 2000 Eighth Joint Theological Commission session meets in Baltimore, discusses text on The Ecclesiological and Canonical Implications of Uniatism, but is suspended; the Russian Orthodox Church announced the canonization of Tsar Nicholas II and his immediate family, executed in 1918; in spite of very stiff opposition from the Church of Greece and the majority of the public, the government of Greece ordered the removal of religious affiliation from state identity cards.
• 2001 Pope John Paul II of Rome apologizes to Orthodox Church for the Fourth Crusade; the Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox Patriarchates of Alexandria agreed to mutually recognize baptisms performed in each other's churches, making rebaptisms unnecessary, and to recognize the sacrament of marriage as celebrated by the other.
• 2002 Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople and Pope John Paul II co-sign Venice Declaration of Environmental Ethics.
• 2003 Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America granted "self-rule" (similar but not identical to autonomy) by Church of Antioch.
• 2004 Pope John Paul II returns relics of Ss. John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian to the Church of Constantinople; Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople consecrates church in Havana, Cuba; consecration of first Orthodox church in Antarctica by Church of Russia; Wonderworking Tikhvin Icon returned to Tikhvin Dormition Monastery after six decades in the United States.
• 2006 Publication of first Orthodox prayer book in Chinese and Russian; Pope Benedict XVI drops Patriarch of the West title; Russian Orthodox parish opened in Pyongyang, North Korea; Ninth Joint Theological Commission of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches meets in Belgrade, Serbia; Pope Benedict XVI visits Ecumenical Patriarchate, drawing criticism from Mount Athos; Abp. Christodoulos (Paraskevaides) of Athens visits Vatican.
• 2007 Restoration of full communion between Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR; 1600th anniversary celebration of the repose of St. John Chrysostom; the 10th plenary assembly of the International Commission for Theological Dialogue met in Ravenna, Italy, led by co-presidents Cardinal Walter Kasper and Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamon, agreeing upon a joint document consisting of 46 articles providing an ecclesiatical road map in discussing union; the commission agreed that Rome occupied the "first place" in canonical order of the ancient seats of bishops, but disagreed on the interpretation of the historical evidence from this era regarding the prerogatives of the bishop of Rome as "protos"; the delegation from the Patriarchate of Moscow withdrew from the joint session over the presence of delegates from the Church of Estonia despite a compromise offered by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Notes

• Some of these dates are necessarily a bit vague, as records for some periods are particularly difficult to piece together accurately.
• The division of Church History into separate eras as we do here will always be to some extent arbitrary, though we have tried to group periods according to major watershed events.
• This timeline is necessarily biased toward the history of the Orthodox Church, though a number of non-Orthodox events are mentioned for their importance in history related to Orthodoxy.

See also

• Timeline of Orthodoxy in America
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in Australia
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in New Zealand
• Timeline of Orthodoxy in Japan

Published works

The following are published writings that provide an overview of Church history:

From an Orthodox perspective

• Schmemann, Alexander. The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy.
• Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church: New Edition. (ISBN 0140146563)

From a Heterodox perspective

• Boer, Harry R. A Short History of the Early Church. (ISBN 0802813399)
• Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 0310208122)
• Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. (ISBN 0140231994)
• Collins, Michael, ed.; Price, Matthew Arlen. Story of Christianity: A Celebration of 2000 Years of Faith. (ISBN 0789446057)
• Eusebius Pamphilus; Cruse, C.F. (translator). Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. (ISBN 1565633717)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. (ISBN 0687171822)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume 2: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation. (ISBN 0687171830)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume 3: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century. (ISBN 0687171849)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation. (ISBN 0060633158)
• Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume 2: Reformation to the Present Day. (ISBN 0060633166)
• Hall, Stuart G. Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church. (ISBN 0802806295)
• Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. (ISBN 0802848753)
• Hussey, J. M. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire: Oxford History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 0198264569)
• Jones, Timothy P. Christian History Made Easy. (ISBN 1890947105)
• Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. (ISBN 080106211X)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). (ISBN 0226653714)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700). (ISBN 0226653730)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 3: The Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300). (ISBN 0226653749)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 4: Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700). (ISBN 0226653773)
• Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 5: Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture (since 1700). (ISBN 0226653803)
• Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 156563196X)
• Wace, Henry; Piercy, William C., ed. A Dictionary of Christian Biography: Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D. With an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies. (ISBN 1565630572)
• Walton, Robert C. Chronological and Background Charts of Church History. (ISBN 0310362814)

External links

• A Timeline of Church History provided by St. Ignatius of Antioch Orthodox Christian Church

• History of Orthodox Christianity (QuickTime movies)
  • Part 1: Beginnings - Journey begins with the founding of the Church, the spread of Christianity to "nations" by the Apostles, the Gospel and the institution of Sacraments
  • Part 2: Byzantium - After the stabilization of the Church, the journey continues through the period of the Nicene Creed, Patristic Scriptures, Divine Liturgy and Icons. During this same period, however, the official division of East and West is witnessed and concludes with a gradual rift in matters of faith, dogma, church customs, politics and culture
  • Part 3: A Hidden Treasure - The Church becomes the only institution perceived by Greeks as the preserver of their national identity during 400 years of Turkish rule. By the end of the 19th century, a worldwide Orthodox community is born and the Church expands its influence to major social and philanthropic concerns